REPORT OF STATE FISH COMMISSIONERS, ETC. 935 



"I have been unable to obtain the number of salmon caught by gill- 

 nets in Lyme, but the dealers estimate them from seventy-five to a 

 hundred." 



The commissioners have authentic evidence that the greater portion 

 of the salmon caught were sent out of the State. Not less than three 

 hundred and twenty-two were sent to the New York markets, and they 

 are reported as weighing about twelve pouuds apiece on an average, and 

 to be superior to every other salmon in the market. From all the facts 

 which the commissioners have been able to gather, they feel no hesitation 

 in asserting that oxer Jive hundred full-grown marketable fish were caught 

 in and near the river during the past season, and with the exception of 

 the few reported as returned to the water from the pounds, every one of 

 them was destroyed ; a most lamentable example of reckless improvidence 

 and wastefulness. (Thirteenth report of the commissioners on fisheries of 

 the State of Connecticut, 1879, pp. 5, 6.) 



About a dozen salmon, weighing each from nine to eighteen pounds, 

 have been taken in the Connecticut River or the pounds west of its 

 mouth during the past season, but no information has been given your 

 commissioners of even one having succeeded in passing above Portland. 

 Great numbers of the young, from one to three years old, in good con- 

 dition, have been seen in different parts of the river and some have beea 

 taken, specimens of which have been sent to your commissioners* 

 (Page 10.) 



NEW YORK. 



Deposit, October 26, 1877. 



Trout, &G. 



Seth Green, Esq. : 



Dear Sir : Yours of the 15th instant received. I have not had an 

 opportunity to observe the condition of the brook trout placed near the 

 head of the Oquago Creek, but those we placed in a little tributary 

 near this place are doing well, and there are no reasons to doubt that 

 the others are doing equally well. They were about 3 or 4 inches long 

 when I saw them. The trout placed in the lake two years ago and last 

 spring have not been heard from. I do not think there has been any 

 fishing specially for them. There is no reason why they may not do 

 well, as the water, depth, and bottom are adapted to that kind of fish. 

 The black and the rock bass put in the lake six years ago last spring 

 have increased wonderfully. A great many fine bass have been caught 

 this fall, ranging from one-half to three pounds six ounces, the largest 

 that has been taken. There will be fine fishing next year. A few have 

 been taken in the Delaware ; they probably came from the lake, as they 

 were caught below the mouth of the outlet. We have succeeded in hav- 

 ing a law passed removing the eel-weirs, which will make it an object 

 to stock the river. I think it would be advisable to place a quantity of 

 young bass in the river at this point this coming winter and spring; it 

 would be better to place them in after the spring ice-freshet, if possible, 



